LibGuides: HIST 101 (Wammack): Library Guides

The Americas, Primary Sources, 1650-1800

American Periodicals Series This link opens in a new window
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1740-1940
Articles from popular magazines and trade journals with a national or regional scope. Use the date range on the left to filter results to pre-1840.
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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1690-1923
Historical newspapers from every state in the U.S.
South Carolina Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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1732-1775, 1777-1780
The South Carolina Gazette published news and details of life and trade in America during the years prior to independence.
American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society, Part I-V (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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View Full Text link is on the left. Warning: some magazines are British.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
1789-1924
Historical newspapers from the Library of Congress, including Nevada newspapers.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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1800-1900
American newspapers including the New York Herald, Lynchburg Virginian, The Hawaiian Gazette, Rocky Mountain News, Southern Illustrated News (VA), Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago), the Milwaukee Sentinel, and many more.

American Broadsides and Ephemera This link opens in a new window
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1749-1900
Printed menus, advertisements, cards, playbills, poems and other printed items never intended to last.
America's Historical Imprints This link opens in a new window
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1639-1923
PDFs of books, pamphlets and broadsides published in North America, including most books published between 1639-1819.
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas This link opens in a new window
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Good for: Finding primary source materials on exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and more.
Contains: Historical books, pamphlets, serials and other documents about North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Dates covered: 1500-1926

Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
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1400-1950s
Primary sources for American Indian history in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books from pre-contact through the mid-20th century.
Food and Drink in History This link opens in a new window
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9th century-2015
Cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and other primary sources revealing the evolution of food and drink within everyday life and the public sphere.
Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement and Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window
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1650-1920
Primary sources like expedition records, letters, diaries and government records from Europeans creating colonies in North America, Africa, and Australasia.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
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1500-present
Primary source materials that tell the story of global trade in chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, oil, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits.
Popular Medicine in America This link opens in a new window
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1800-1900
Advertising pamphlets, trade cards, posters and promotional work by commercial manufacturers of medical aids revealing trends such as phrenology, herbal medicine and hydrotherapy.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
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1490-2007
Case studies documenting slavery in America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba, along with material examining European, Islamic and African involvement in the slave trade.

Americana This link opens in a new window
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1493-1975
Search all American history archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Combined search of American History, American Indian Histories and Cultures, American West, Everyday Life & Women in America c.1800-1920, Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975, Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, and Virginia Company Archives.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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Select American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society and Nineteenth Century United States Newspapers to search them together.
Includes 19th Century UK Periodicals, Archives of Sexuality & Gender (LGBTQ History), British Library Newspapers, The Economist (1843-2014), Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Sabin Americana (1500-1926), China and the Modern World, London Times Digital Archive, and London Times Literary Supplement.
Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
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1639-1922
Combined search of American historical newspapers (1690-1922), printed books (1639-1819), and pamphlets and ephemera (1749-1922).
Search all collections of historical primary sources from Readex simultaneously: America's Historical Newspapers, American Broadsides and Ephemera; American Pamphlets; Early American Imprints (Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker).

National Parks and Monuments

Interesting essay about studying objects from the colonial era

The Material Shape of Early American Life
Carson, Barbara G. "The Material Shape of Early American Life." Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History, edited by Mary Kupiec Cayton, and Peter W. Williams, Gale, 1st edition, 2001.

Browse exhibits and collections

Searchable collections

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
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Art digital images and related data.
A repository of hundreds of thousands of digital images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, social sciences and related data; the tools to actively use those images; and a restricted usage environment that seeks to balance the rights of content providers with the needs and interests of content user.

Google patent search
Use the Priority Date filter on the left to filter to patents issued between 1790-1840.
more...less...
The patent office burned down in 1836, destroying all previously filed records; 1300 patents from before 1836 exist and are available online.
DATAMP Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents.
Database of pre-1836 tool patents. Link goes to "browse interesting patents" list.

Patent

By Sybilla Righton Masters, public domain.

Class slides from Sept 9 visit

Definitions and examples

Mucilage of Marshmallows
A broadside is the name for a complete document printed on one sheet of paper.

Browne, Peter A. (Peter Arrell). An essay on Indian corn by Peter A. Browne, L.L.D.
A pamphlet is typically a folded printed document that may or may not be stitched together and is typically 32 pages or less.

Research Methods - Primary Sources

Research Skills Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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Essays, videos, how-to guides and case studies by historians, archivists and other specialists about working with primary sources.
From guidance on where you can find historical documents to the questions you might want to pose and how best to approach analyzing the content they hold, this platform gathers together practical advice and instruction from experts working around the world.

Secondary sources

Scholarship presenting current research

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association
Journal for antiques collectors, historical reenactors, and others interested in research on historical technologies. Search for a topic or browse by expanding the list of dates.